Recently, driving support apparatuses, namely, navigation apparatuses have been widely used, that support a driving operation by notifying a direction to drive before an intersection, so that the driver can drive in accordance with a driving scheduled course set in advance.
Conventional navigation apparatuses indicate the direction to drive at a divergence point. However, sometimes the roads have a plurality of lanes and the driver has to change to a lane corresponding to the direction to drive. In order to support such a lane change, Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a technology for supporting smooth driving through more than two closely spaced intersections by guiding the driver to drive in a specific lane when exiting a first intersection, which is suitable for driving through a second intersection.
Also, in order to prevent guiding to an erroneous lane by giving an instruction at an inappropriate timing, Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for setting, on the basis of a mergence or a divergence of lanes on a course between a current position of its own vehicle and a guidance diverging point, a recommended driving lane in which driving is appropriately possible from the current position of the vehicle to a course beyond the guidance diverging point, and for performing predetermined lane guidance at each approach of a point to be notified before a diverging point to be notified.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application-Laid-Open No. 2001-227970    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3301386